It only looked and felt like the UCLA forward had been cloned during the Bruins' 78-75 victory over Colorado on Saturday at the Coors Events Center.

Wear scored 23 points, including nine clutch points with the game on the line, to lead UCLA to its ninth consecutive victory.

David Wear, Travis' twin brother, was mostly just a decoy with two points and five rebounds off the bench.

"This wasn't an aberration or a coming out party for him. He has been playing well the last two, three weeks," CU head coach Tad Boyle said of Travis Wear, a 6-10, 230-pound redshirt junior. "When you go on the road, that's what you have to do is make shots when they count, you have to make free throws when they count. That's what UCLA did. We didn't do that until the last two minutes."

"Some of our big guys aren't used to guarding a really skilled outside shooting type of big man," CU point guard Spencer Dinwiddie said after matching Wear's offensive output with 23 points. "It made them hard to guard in a different way. He was a force."

CU had a slight 34-22 rebounding edge and 15 second-chance points.

However, Travis Wear was 11-for-17 from the field as UCLA shot 51.7 percent.

Advertisement

"I'm excited about playing in Boulder," Wear said at the Pac-12 media day event in October. "It should be a very good game because they're going to have a solid team again this year. I know they have a really good crowd, so I'm looking forward to going out there."

Unfortunately for the Buffs, they won't get a chance at redemption unless they run into the Bruins at the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.

CU does not play at UCLA or USC in the unbalanced schedule.

Bruin' trouble in Boulder

This was the Bruins' first victory in Boulder. In UCLA's only other road game at CU on Dec. 7, 1962, the visitors lost 82-60 at Balch Field house.

The Buffs finished the 1962-63 season 19-7 overall and 11-3 in the Big Eight. Sox Walseth's squad, which was led by Ken Charlton and Jim Davis, defeated Oklahoma State (78-72) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Cincinnati (67-60).

UCLA leads the all-time series 6-1 with a 5-0 record against CU in Los Angeles.

Notable

UCLA was 21-6 on the road while winning three consecutive Pac-12 titles from 2006 to 2008. Over the last three-plus seasons they are now 12-17 (2-0 this season). ... Entering the game, Larry Drew II was third nationally in assists (8.25 apg). The senior point guard was held without a point and to five assists by the Buffs. ... Sabatino Chen came off the bench for the second time this season and was 0-for-2 from the field with two points.

Quotable

"Their RPI is off the hook, and this is obviously a hard place to win. They were 14-2 last year, 7-1 this year now, there's going to be very few teams that come in here and beat Colorado. That's a huge, huge win for us," a very happy Ben Howland after UCLA's ninth consecutive victory.

Billionaires, entertainers and athletes alike announced their intentions to pursue the Los Angeles Clippers with varying degrees of seriousness Wednesday, proving the longtime losers will be quite a prize if the NBA is able to wrest control of the team away from Donald Sterling after his lifetime ban for racist remarks. Full Story

Louie, who (like Louis) is a New York comic and a divorced father of two daughters, knows struggle and angst and cloudy wonderment. He views life through eyes with a stricken look, dwelling in a state of comfortable dread. Full Story